No Body Left Behind: Difference between revisions

 

[[Animated Armor]] may be caused by this. On the other hand, you may never know. See also [[Disappears Into Light]] and [[I'm Melting]]. For the moral equivalent to this, see [[Self-Disposing Villain]]. May be the end result of [[No Immortal Inertia]]. If he takes his dungeon and doomsday devices with him, he may be a [[Load-Bearing Boss]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', low-level hollows dissolve when they are killed, although high powered Arrancar or Shinigami usually don't (there are some exceptions, related to the manner in which they were killed).

* ''[[Digimon]]'': The Digimon dissolve as soon as they die. Though occasionally they'll revert to digieggs for plot-related purposes.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]''

** In the third season of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'', [[Cerebus Syndrome|people actually start dying]]. When this happens on camera instead of falling off a cliff, the people/duel monsters tend to glow bright white then fade into dust that blows away.

** Worth noting that in both series [[Unexplained Recovery|they got better]].

* In the ''[[Naruto]]'' anime at least one of Orochimaru's test subjects dissolved into nothing. Based on his expression at the time, Orochimaru had seen it enough for it to be a common occurrence.

* When a robot dies in ''[[Casshern Sins]]'' it turns to dust.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* The Rankin/Bass version of ''[[The Hobbit (animation)|The Hobbit]]'' features giant spiders that gave a scratchy yelp and spun away into oblivion when slain. To a high-school classroom, this is hilarious. When {{spoiler|Thorin}} dies his body remains and a veil is spread over it in a dignified manner, disappointing anyone expecting a spider-like demise.

* In ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'', Maleficent [[Scaled Up|becomes a dragon]], [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|gets impaled by a sword]], [[Disney Villain Death|and falls down a cliff.]] When the sword's shown again, it has only a cloak under it.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* In a new movie called ''The Darkest Hour'', the main "aliens" can shred a human body into dust in a slightly disturbing manner.

* At the end of ''[[The Rock (film)|The Rock]]'', Sean Connery's character, an alcatraz inmate, runs off and asks Cage's character to tell the authorities that he was killed. Nicholas Cage's character does so, and when asked about the body, says that this occurred to him as a result of the bioweapon [[MacGuffin]].

 

== Gamebooks ==

* In the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series, amongst others, the Darklords and Nadziranim fade into nothingness when killed. As for their undead servants, Vordaks and Helghasts, they [[I'm Melting|dissolve into foul-smelling liquids]] when destroyed.

 

== Literature ==

* Almost every monster in the ''[[Percy Jackson & the Olympians|Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' books. Sometimes a piece of the monster will remain if it was cut off before the monster died (such as the Minotaur's horn), or if severing it ''causes'' the monster to die (such as Medusa's head).

* This also apparently happens to monsters in ''[[The Kane Chronicles]]'', which [[Word of God]] confirms takes place in the same universe as ''Percy Jackson''.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[The Invaders (TV series)|The Invaders]]'' is probably the most iconic series with aliens disappearing upon death. Note that they could inflict the same thing to humans with their [[Disintegrator Ray]]s.

* Lampshaded on ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' in the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Wormhole X-treme!'' The lead actor is having trouble in a romance scene because the background is littered with the bodies of dead Mooks his character killed in the previous scene (which is kind of distracting, ya know). The staff remove the bodies and hope no one will notice the change in scene continuity (one writer proposes that they write it so that the alien weapons disintegrate bodies, but his idea is quickly shot down).

** Averted in the third season episode "The Wish". Buffy kills a demon but it doesn't fade away and the Scoobies realise they'll have to bury it. Vampires, as Buffy notes, are so much easier. Stake, dust, no cleaning up.

** In "Hells Bells" a demon attacks Anya during the wedding and is killed by Buffy. When it refuses to go "poof" Willow suggests covering it with flowers.

* Mostly averted in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. While there are monsters that turn to dust or don't leave anything to prove they existed (especially ghosts), the Hunters know how to cover their tracks, and thus get rid of a body of a monster/demon they killed. Also they don't stay too much in the same place after the "job" for the missing person to be obvious or connected to them. A FBI [[Dying Like Animals|Bloodhound]] (note that this implies some greater professionalism than your typical province sheriff/cop they have to deal with) actually "tracks" the Winchesters for a year or so and all he can put on their record are some grave-disturbing crimes and murders on ordinary people they weren't responsible for.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'': Alien hybrids dissolve into green goo when killed.

 

== Puppet Shows ==

* In ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'', both the Skeksis and the Mystics leave no body behind when they die. The Skeksis crumble to dust, but the Mystics simply fade away.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', Necron bodies will seemingly dissipate if a battle seems to be lost. This is because the bodies are being teleported back to their tombs to be repaired.

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]''. Several [[Cthulhu Mythos]] monsters will dissolve into liquid after they're killed, such as the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath and the Mi-Go.

 

== Video Games ==

* Both played straight and averted in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''. When killed, the elite FROG soldiers immediately dissolve into dust. However, when a normal soldier is killed, his body remains and must be disposed of to keep other soldiers from discovering it.

* Spaceship wrecks in ''[[EVE Online]]'' last for about two hours before vanishing.

* ''[[Golden Axe]]'' is possibly the oldest game that doesn't do this: in the arcade version, every enemy you defeat fades to gray and remains on the floor like that. In most ports, however, the enemies do disappear, probably because of memory constraints.

* The first few ''[[Fallout]]'' games averted this in that corpses tended to stick around for several days unless the player managed to obliterate their opponent with certain energy weapons. After the corpses decay/presumably are eaten a pool of blood remains on the spot. Generally the blood pools disappeared after some days but those that did not sometimes hid useful items.

** The Demon-Roaches disappear when killed, as seen [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0654.html in this strip], since they are extraplanar creatures from the Abysses.

* In ''[[Erfworld]]'' the bodies of the dead, if not moved or uncroaked, disappear at the beginning of their side's turn.

 

== Web Original ==

 

== Western Animation ==